I’ve been rather busy with work these past few weeks (months, even) and haven’t had as much time as I’d like to post good optics and history of science posts. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some recent pictures of hummingbirds that I took in our backyard. We’ve had a feeder up, and a number of hummingbirds have stopped by on a regular basis (every 5 minutes, even) to take a drink. This has made it relatively easy to get some nice shots of the birds, which are some of my favorite animals out there. Click on pics to see full size, which includes lots of lovely detail.

This nearly perfect shot I took yesterday was of a female ruby-throated hummingbird.

We’ve also had a rather rough-looking male visiting regularly, and most of my pictures are of him. I was worried that he might be sick, but he seems to be having no trouble at all chasing away other hummingbirds from the feeder. My clearest picture of him is below.

You can’t see the ruby throat in this picture, but I’ve noticed that they have the ability to display or hide the colors at will. Different pictures of the same fellow will show dramatically different levels of color.

One time when he saw me spying on him, the hummingbird retreated to a nearby flowering tree to have a snack and keep an eye on me.

The lighting wasn’t perfect (raining today), but I’m hoping to catch him on the same tree in the sun on another occasion.

When I looked through my pictures, I noticed something I haven’t captured before: the hummingbird’s tongue out!

Be sure to click on the picture to zoom in and see it.

I’ll be back with more optics posts in the near future — as well as more hummingbird pics!

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The author of Skulls in the Stars is an associate professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas.